Takeoff

Orbital Sciences' L-1011 carrier aircraft lifts off the runway as it departs from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The aircraft is transporting Orbital's Pegasus rocket and NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft to the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Image credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB